Andrew Cermak

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

The cost is unlikely to have been that great... CU mentioned it when large #'s of heroes died, given the attention lavished on enumerating the death toll of Takofanes' first rampage, the Warlord's lifetime kill count, and (of course) the Battle of Detroit. The attempted invasions of Istvatha V'Han, on the other hand, were treated in the timeline as 'same stuff, different aliens', and not with any 'this was a really dark day!' text whatsoever.

It is said that she was "barely defeated." That implies a stroke of luck or genius on the heroes' part, and argues against assertions that she came ill-prepared.

And since we know nearly nothing about what she came with, how she came with it, or how she was repulsed, the only basis we have for criticizing her is that she lost, and as a comic-style supervillain losing is her raison d'etre. She does, after all, have Overconfidence bought as VC, Total. She's designed to give the heroes a chance to win, even if she doesn't realize she's doing it.

Re: Worldwide Champions

When I look at the description I see no Canadian Superheroes.

Canada is slated to get its own book.

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

think the standard silver/bronze age concept of dimensional villains [which the CU adheres to] has very little to do with them sending in scouts or following logical military ideals about combat. Basically Dormammu decides he's going to attack' date=' tries to open a gate for his forces, and is usually countered by Dr. Strange in some manner. It's pretty-much the same for Darkseid and all the other dimensional types in the comics.[/quote']

 

Absolutely true.

 

Logic and tactics have very little to do with silver/bronze age comics [but a lot to do with iron age ideologies].

 

I think even Iron Age would be more focused on in-the-trenches blood and sweat than strategic concerns. It's hard to be grim and gritty in the general's tent.

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

So again' date=' your point is?[/quote']

 

The point is, and has been, that it's possible to explain V'Han's invasion behavior rationally if one cares too.

 

On the other hand, if someone actually prefers there to be no explanation, because that way they get to be smarmy, superior, and "right," then for them I suppose no explanation could possibly suffice.

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

Sadly, none of this fiction involves 5e Champions game mechanics re: ED-movement, or even any of the fluff text in Mystic World (the best sourcebook for D-travel that 5e has).

They don't really say anything about the detectability of EDM at all, do they, other than it's as visible as any non-modified Power is? That's an argument from silence, and therefore not an argument at all.

As it is, Detect EDM, Megascale, is a pretty simple game construct. Cosmic Awareness from the USPD might often pick it up as well, but I don't have the book handy to check the power's details.

And yet on Earth-Champions, which is one of the highest-mana spots in the universe, even the Archmage (when we had him) did *not* get an insta-alert to every dimensional incursion involving only a small group of people, only to actual dimensional invasion attempts.

We don't really know all that much about the Archmages at this point. At any rate, the possible (but not certain) fact that they failed to detect small incursions doesn't mean those incursions were non-detectable.

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

I see no magic "variables" that will suddenly make it a smart idea at the multidimensional level.

Lots of fiction, especially of the comicbook variety, suggests that incidents of cross-dimensional travel are highly visible to those who are able to look for them, even at great distances.

Perhaps V'han has learned that, since every time she sends in scouts she alerts scientifically and mystically advanced civilizations to her impending invasion, it's best to send in a force large enough to attack and defend on its own.

Perhaps she then learned that, in many cases, those "scouting parties" were all that was necessary to get the job done.

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

As for all of your real-world history examples of stupid empires and stupid rulers... guys, have you noticed, you're all listing LOSERS? People whose stupidity caught up to and killed them inside of a few short years?

Even highly successful military juggernauts have lapses. The US had the Bay of Pigs, and that invasion was built on intel.

We could have won that, if Kennedy had wanted to commit more and better forces, but he had reasons for not doing so. Presumably V'han had her reasons as well.

Re: Which villain needs an overhaul?

It's not cost-effective to lose wars to save pennies.

When you own 100 million dimensions, losing a war costs you pennies. Winning one nets you pennies.

Seriously, cost-effectiveness? Why should she care about that? On an empire the scale of hers, scarcity ceases to have meaning, which means economic concerns cease to have meaning.

Re: How do construct the ability to activate others' powers?

Andrew:

 

how is that Power (or Advantage?) constructed?

First of all, let me correct myself; it's actually in DH #14. #7 has the Object Creation Power.

Activate is an Instant, No Range Standard/Attack Power. It costs 10, 20, or 30 points, depending on how large a class of beings it can target (the Power assumes it is being used on some subset of machines, but allows the GM to expand it to other targets.

Re: How do construct the ability to activate others' powers?

Regarding the original topic, the Digital Hero #7 Heroglyphs column presents a Power called "Activate" that does this.

Re: "Brick Trick"

Mind Control vs PRE, Requires a Reputation Roll or violent action?

 

In short, super-intimidation through the threat of super-violence.

 

While there's nothing like this in the Ultimate Brick, it does sound like the sort of power that might be in Dark Champions as a "Super-Skill." I don't have the book handy to check, though.

Re: Anyone get DC: TAS yet?

The art really is terrible. Just awful; some of it's nearly Blood of Heroes bad.

And that's especially disappointing considering how cool the new villains are. They deserved better.

Re: Spiderman Vs. Firelord

Spider-man: +30 strength, 0 end and +3 speed, only when really, really, really, really upset: -2. Total Cost: 25 points

There's ample justification for this, actually. Not this extreme, perhaps, but he does get a lot stronger when he's mad.

Comic books are what they are. I still prefer to follow the "3 use rule" and just assume it's bad writer's caveat

Firelord. Rhino. Iron Man 2020. Titania. The three use rule was surpassed a long time ago.

Re: Which Edition of Champions/Hero System Worked Best for Your Champions Campaign?

5th. The overall quality of the 5th edition line is head and shoulders above any of the previous editions.

3rd and 4th had some great supplements, mixed in with some absolute dross.

The incoherence of the pre-5th CU is another strike against those editions.

Re: M&M to HERO

I made a conversion matrix like this for M&M, but I abandoned it after I realized how easy it was to tell the converted characters apart from "natural" Champions characters; they just didn't "feel" the same.

I do my conversions now by loading up a similar character in HeroDesigner and adjusting it to fit; they feel much more organic as a result.

Re: Why does the USS Iowa only have a 10 Defense?

In my mind, it comes down to the role of vechiles in the campaign.

The rules as they stand are good for a game that occasionally has vechiles show up, but not for one where they are an integral part of the story.

Just my .02

I feel the exact opposite to be true.

With the exception of the DEF of the warships (which I feel is likely the result of an error), I think the vehicles work perfectly fine in relation to each other. It's against other published characters that they make less sense, so the more the campaign focuses on vehicle vs. vehicle, the better off the vehicles come out.

Re: Biggest whine about HERO

Why do some people get so rude and angry just because we are discussing ways in which to make this great game better, with a broader appeal?

Frankly, I consider a few of your posts to be the rudest in this thread.

"Discussing ways in which to make this great game better" shouldn't involve insulting the people who are breaking their backs and risking their own dollars to keep this game on the shelves, and for you to say that they don't know how to run their business as well as you do is insulting in the extreme.

Re: Summon to simulate seeking projectiles

And?

And people like to use superhero RPGs to simulate things they see in comics.

Re: Biggest whine about HERO

Besides which, hasn't Steve repeatedly announced his plans to release a free "Teach Yourself the Hero System" .pdf? So that's two independent efforts DoJ is making on this front, and yet your whining goes on.

And that's not even counting the mass appeal of the Hero genre books, which IME, outside this forum, are the most praised books DoJ has published to date, and which are apparently seeing a fair bit of use by non-Hero gamers.

Re: Biggest whine about HERO

How successful was it? Just because something was created that you thought addressed the issue just might not have.

 

Ya think?

The print run sold out and another's on the way, so it'd be hard to label it a failure, ya think?

Or maybe all the copies just vanished alongside the equipment write-ups in your copy of 5ER.

So, if the goal of Sidekick was to create a stripped-down version of the rules that would be less threatening and easier to learn, and that would sell, please explain to me exactly how you think it failed.

Re: Summon to simulate seeking projectiles

Something to keep in mind...most "homing" weapons don't actually make multiple attempts to hit their target.

In comics, they often do.

Re: Biggest whine about HERO

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Well...I think it's unfortunate that Hero's sales aren't commensurate with the quality of the product. But no, I wouldn't want them to change their focus.

What I would like is for certain individuals to recognize that the RPG market isn't the ripe plum waiting for the picking they think it is, and that the legions of casual newbies looking for a game other than D&D/d20 they think DoJ should be catering to just aren't out there.

Re: Biggest whine about HERO

There may be a valid analogy to computer UI design. GUI's are restrictive, but intuitive and even newbies can be productive with them reasonably quickly. Command line interfaces are much more flexible, and allow far more to be done once you know them, but are MUCH harder to learn and get productive with. Not surprisingly, the experts like CLIs and everyone else likes GUIs. ...and there are far more "everyone else" than experts. CLIs cater to a niche market. GUIs to the mass market. Guess which is worth more $$$?

The analogy extends further than you'd like to think.

There's only one OS with any significant share of the market. Other OSs that try to compete on its terms are squeezed out or languish in obscurity. Most users will never use another OS in their lives, and have no desire to change or indication that they should change. The only OSs that survive and flourish (relatively speaking) cater to experienced users looking to do things that the dominant OS can't handle.

HERO will never have the RPG mass market. It isn't up for grabs any more than the OS mass market is.

Re: Biggest whine about HERO

The game is not just a 'tad' flexible. It's so flexible that you don't even know how much damage a sword does when you pick up the core rulebook!

Maybe you should read the book you're criticizing.

5th and 5ER are good books for veterans of the hero system. However, can you imagine someone brand new to it feeling a bit overwhelmed?

Sidekick was created specifically to address this concern. You are harping on a non-issue.

Re: Biggest whine about HERO

I'm telling you how the system and many of those people react in the real world. There are people not buying the game, and other who aren't doing very well after buying it for the very reasons I gave. You don't want to believe and wish to insist on overlying your worldview onto theirs- fine. Have fun. It's not my job to teach the unwilling.

What, you've taken surveys? If so, please post the data.

But it seems more likely that you're just generalizing your own biases about what's useful and what isn't, and pretending they have some objective value.